If you LOVED the book, should you see the movie? In this case the answer is YES. British author Monica Ali's beloved novel, "Brick Lane," won all sorts of awards and made numerous top ten lists when it was published in 2003. Critics praised it and readers embraced it. Now this story of...

Everyone has favorite Christmas DVDs. My favorite comedies are "Scrooged" with Bill Murray (since all I had to do was look at Murray and I would start guffawing) and "Christmas Story" (since it is set in Hammond, which is where I grew up). My favorite dramas are "It's a Wonderful...

In the television show Chuck , Charles "Chuck" Bartowski plays your typical 20-something computer-geek, stuck in a dead-end job at Buy More's Nerd Herd (a less-than-subtle parody of Best Buy's Geek Squad). He lives an uneventful life with his sister Ellie, until one day when he receives...

Redbelt , written & directed by David Mamet, is not your typical martial arts movie...it has very few action scenes. In fact, calling it a "martial arts movie" is a bit belittling, as it is first and foremost a drama. While it started extremely slowly, I ended up getting drawn in and loving...

I'm a fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. In the States, this comedic duo is best known for Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (both of which I highly recommend!). They got their start in a British television comedy called Spaced ; it ran for two seasons (14 episodes total) during 1999-2001. It finally...

If you didn't watch this absolutely wonderful series when it was on HBO, do so now! I just spent 8 glorious hours in the bosom of the Adams family -- from the early 1770s until John's death on July 4, 1826. (In case you didn't remember, John Adams and his good friend/enemy and co-founding...

I don't think that The Counterfeiters made it to the Evansville theatres, but you can now watch it in DVD. Made in Austria, it won the 2008 Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. Late in WWII, the Germans conscripted a number of concentration camp prisoners with printing experience to produce counterfeit...

SPOILER ALERT! This movie is about a half-hour to one hour too long -- it could have used some judicious editing. Once the relationship between Batman and Rachel is resolved (I won't tell you how), the dramatic tension is gone. They should have just said "And then..." and ended the dang...

I just finished a Rome marathon -- loved it! I don't subscribe to HBO but had heard great stuff about the Rome series and noticed it on the shelf and the rest is history. My son Eric says that it was the most expensive TV production ever, which probably contributed to its demise after two seasons...